He has gone off in search of a story where he can be the hero for a change. On his travels, Dragon comes across a litany of fairy tale characters and seizes on each of these encounters as an opportunity to become a hero.
He offers to save the Gingerbread Man from a fox and a Little Pig from the Big Bad Wolf, he tries to give Hansel and Gretel a map, and he attempts to help Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood as well.
But to no avail. No matter what story Dragon ends up in, and no matter who he tries to help, the answer is always the same:
'No, no, no, that's not how it goes. There is NO DRAGON in this story.'
Finally, in an act of desperation, dragon becomes muddle up with Jack, the beanstalk and a sneezing Giant, and the fairy tale world is suddenly cast into darkness when the sun is accidently blown out. Sitting in the darkness, it finally occurs to all the Fairytale characters that actually, perhaps exactly what they need is a dragon in this story.
If you've been enjoying the plethora of books featuring wrongly accused wolves who are terribly bored of being typecast as the bad guy, this is a great deviation from that trend. This story pulls together a great selection of fractured fairytales, but manages to finish up with an original flourish that will charm and delight.
The illustrations are thoroughly enchanting, I particularly loved the portrayal of light and shadow when the fairy tale characters were cast into darkness, it is a book that I look forward to experiencing for many a bedtime to come.
Title: There is NO Dragon in This Story
Author: Lou Carter
Illustrator: Deborah Allwright
Publisher: Bloomsbury, $ 23.95
Publication Date: 13 July 2017
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9781408864890
For ages: 3-8
Type: Picture Book